Healthcare You Can Wear

It used to be that if a doctor wanted to find out a patient’s blood pressure, heart rate, or other vital signs, it would require a visit to the office or the hospital. That’s all been changing with the design and maturation of wearable sensor technology, which will give doctors or other caregivers the ability to monitor a person’s health remotely through a patch worn on the body.

The technology -- from Vancive Medical Technologies, Proteus Digital Health, and others -- paves the way for a range of new applications in weight management, wellness, and prevention programs that could improve a person’s health, and actually eliminate the need for doctor visits.

“Healthcare has expanded now -- there is a lot of accountability on the part of the user,” Deepak Prakash, global market segment manager of wearable sensors for Vancive, told us, going on to say:

People are participating in wellness programs. They need tools, and hospitals need better tools to deliver healthcare to maintain costs. Once you’ve been treated and released, [doctors] still want to monitor you, especially during the risky periods, so you don’t get sick again.”

Vancive's sensor system features a durable adhesive and is meant to be worn on the torso or chest near the heart. The company licensed technology from Proteus Digital Health to create the system, which can be used for healthcare monitoring and prevention, wellness, or other applications.

To help accomplish these goals, in June 2001, Vancive, best known for developing durable medical adhesives, licensed technology from Proteus, which last year had its ingestible sensor technology approved by the FDA for use in pharmaceutical manufacturing. The Proteus Ingestion Event Marker (IEM) can be integrated into tablets to help people keep track of when they take their medication. The sensor communicates with a patch on the skin to log the time it is taken, as well as to provide other information.

Proteus developed its own adhesive-attachable patch after determining there were no devices that sufficiently addressed what the company wanted in terms of size, comfort, and cost, according to David O'Reilly, chief product officer at Proteus.

This skin sensor is the technology Vancive has combined with its own expertise in adhesives that are built to last a week or more to design a new wearable device of its own, a 4-inch x 2-inch Band-Aid-like adhesive that can be worn on the body -- on the torso near the heart -- and monitor vital signs. “The device has multiple sensors in it,” Prakash told us. “Through this and through algorithms we’ve developed, we’re able to derive physiological information from your body.”

Sensors in the patch can record a person’s ECG (heart rate or heart variability), temperature, galvanic skin response (GSR), and activity such as the position or angle of one’s body through an accelerometer, transmitting data about these physical factors via Bluetooth to caregivers.

Prevention as art of the cure
Indeed, wearable patches, and even clothing that monitors a person’s health, are becoming the way forward for a medical industry that’s increasing its focus on wellness and preventative medicine, rather than merely treating disease. Some engineers are even building sensors into clothing bigger than a patch to monitor people’s vital signs and other physical activity.

Boston-based Rest Devices, for instance, has designed a shirt with sensors to monitor a person’s sleep to diagnose irregularities such as sleep apnea, as well as a baby onesie that can allow parents or caregivers to monitor a child as he or she sleeps. Sensors inside the clothing send information to a smartphone application or tablet via a wireless connection.

As the Wellness industry matures, this is a great product for Westerners. Today, we all seem to need to monitor and analyze every little step in our daily lives. Watching power usage by the hour on Smart Meters, checking social media accounts constantly, etc.

This tool is great for those who try out a new program, whether it's a diet, acupuncture, yoga, etc, and need know immediately if it's "working" or not.

Elizabeth, any idea how this sensor is communicating with doctor. Is it with the help of any service provider with SIM card or a wifi signals. Anyway it has to use some mediums to communicate with doctors. Is it a half duplex or full duplex communication.

Elizabeth, there is no doubt that such technologies will be helpful for patients, especially to those who are not able to move around from bed. Remote diagnosis will be a great help for such elder peoples and doctors can diagnose them at any time based on the current statists of data through the sensors. Hope this technology will emerge soon.

I haven't heard of him, naperlou, but will look him up. I do believe that's true, if we have a better sense of our health first hand then we can address any potential problems more quickly before they get dire (and expensive). And it also makes people more responsible for their own health, which is crucial. Thanks for reading and for the suggestion.

Thanks, Greg! Actually, I wrote an article awhile ago for another publication about technology that could determine if a soldier had been injured by a bomb blast...I think it was headgear. That used sensors as well. So you're dead on (no pun intended!) that this technology would be applicable for the military for sure. I think it would be a wake up call for all of us (even those of us who think we're fairly healthy) to have access and wear a device like this.

Elizabeth, over the last couple of years I have heard talks from MartyCooper. He is cedited as the developer of the cell phone at Motorola. He will tell you he was part of a team, but he is credited with making the first call on a cellular network. Marty's area is, or course, communications. He has been touting these wearable medical sensors. They always appear at the end of his talk when discussing how technology can help solve some of the world's most pressing problems. Marty is in his 80s. He runs daily and is still coming up with patents (important ones) and working start-ups. His point is that it is communication technology, paired with these sensors, that will cost effectively help improve health and bring down costs.

Great article. Multiple potential applications come to mind when I read this report. One new application could be for the military to track a soldier's health in real-time. Another application I see is health care companies giving their clients a reduction in premium charges if they live a healthy lifestyle (and show evidence of this by wearing these devices).

Prevention is better than a cure, and these types of new medical technologies are leading the way to a healthier lifestyle for people, whether they've had medical problems already, struggle with weight issues or just generally want to keep fit. These are the kinds of stories I really enjoy writing because they actually affect people's lives in a positive way. What do you all think of this type of technology?

If a major catastrophe strikes your area, will you be prepared? Do you know how to modify the tech you've already got or MacGyver what you need to fit your own situation? A free, five-day Continuing Education Center course starting April 6 will show you how.

Focus on Fundamentals consists of 45-minute on-line classes that cover a host of technologies. You learn without leaving the comfort of your desk. All classes are taught by subject-matter experts and all are archived. So if you can't attend live, attend at your convenience.